Program development for the PSoC4 is done using the free PSoC Creator IDE and PSoC Programmer software (neither time or code size limited.) These allow you to develop custom mixed-signal system-on-chips with programmable analog and digital blocks combined with flexible routing and interconnects. (In addition to Creator’s drag and drop design format, PSoC 4 will probably also be programmable in Verilog, since that is an option with other devices using the PSoC Creator IDE.)

The development board is known as the PSoC 4 Pioneer board and is available for advance ordering from a number online retailers for a list price of $25 (plus shipping). It employs the Arduino form factor, contemplating compatibility with Arduino shields and Digilent Pmod daughtercards.

Essentially these Cypress PSoC devices are a PLD supported by sophisticated yet easily navigable development software. While not open source, these are cool chips nevertheless.

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Exactly!!
the PSOC5 in the board has 2 connectors, the first one has several IO lines broken. The second is a JTAG header to program the PSOC5. So using a Miniprog3 or EZUSB to program the psoc5lp you basically have 2 CPUs on the board.

Man there are so many choices to move beyond the 8 bit controller. There comes a time when you think you have learned all the essentials of using an 8-bit controller and want to move beyond that (of course there is so much more to learn, but you need something new). There are so many choices in the same price range. You can get a 32 bit arduino board, the familiarity and the advantage of ecosystem remains there. You can get a raspberry Pi ($35) and learn developing on embedded linux or the arm core. Raspberry Pi will teach you to develop user applications. But you also have the papilio in the same range and a decent enough FPGA on it. Apart from that now the PSoC 4 board is also not that expensive. I am very confused about where to go next.

There is no wrong way to go :)
If you move on to PSoC 4 or any other Cortex M boards, you can think of these as a graduate level class in what you already know about microcontrollers. RasPi and FPGAs are more like an entirely different major.

Though it’s bad news for my Loki board, the Pioneer looks great. I’m glad to see Cypress releasing a development board that’s more suited to repurposing and hobbyist use rather than as a trial platform.

It’s clear from their video that they still don’t quite get how to target the maker market, though. :)

I’ve been a long fan and user of the PSoC 1 which was a revolutionary chip when it came out (and still is in many ways). However, it’s around 14odd years now and has lost ground to other architectures particularly when it comes to power consumption and ease of debugging. PsoC 3 & 5 improved at the top end, but didn’t really fill the gap between 8-bit and 32-bit and migrate PsoC 1 apps.

I’ve gotta say this looks a superb product which has evolved the PSoc 1 targets and added in-circuit debugging, low power, 32-bit power and the easier PSoC Creator software. These are amazing devices and the cost of the evaluation board makes this a no-brainer. Cannot wait to test this out.

There are so many amazing options at price points that fall into the ‘why not’ category for the hardware, but there’s one major sticking point I have with nearly all of the design tools: they usually require windows. I do not have a windows license I can use for personal things, which means that my price-point to start into some of them is not $25 + S&H, but $25 + cost of windows license + S&H.

I know the professional EDA market seems to be dominated by Windows machines just like every other large-company workplace seems to be, but it would seem like a product marketed at the ‘hacker’/’maker’ audience might want to look at a non-windows-only design tool solution.

I have to agree with you there Joe. I do run these tools on a Virtual PC under VMWare Fusion on a Mac, but it’s always a bit of a struggle. I therefore, reluctantly have to maintain a Dev PC too, and as you point out, in both cases a Windows licence is required. Roll on the day when it’ll run on something else (glad to see MPLAB went cross platform).

You should be able to get a “buy it now” Windows XP license (which last I heard is still supported until 12/31/2013) for less than $10-$15 on ebay. Unfortunately the upgrade offer from any Windows to Win8 PRO for $29.99 has expired at the end of 01/2013 but a Win7 license can still be bought for less than $30 on ebay… and if you have a few days and not rely on “buy it now” you can often get one for less than $20, sometimes as low as $10-$15.

One “trick” that I’ve been using for both Vista and 7 Ultimate was to get an System Builder license in Germany (they must sell these without a HW purchase requirement) and then simply patch the DVD with an English language pack… of course the Ultimate versions aren’t cheap but still significantly cheaper than an upgrade or full version… and I can keep using them seperately which wouldn’t be possible had I bought the update.

My two favorite platforms are netmf and psoc. I just got the freeSOC Combo, which is a PSoC5LP on an either an Arduino compatible board and/or DIP style pcb. Head over to freesoc.net to learn more about it if you are interested.